Arrangement in ruling machine

ABSTRACT

In a ruling machine of the type in which a recorder pencil is carried by a carriage which is moved in accordance with a scanner, an arrangement for enlarging or reducing the distance travelled by the recorder pencil relevant to the scanner to thereby counteract distortions which would otherwise arise when the pattern made by the recorder pencil is stretched as when mounted on a cylinder of a printing press. A threaded shaft extends in the direction in which enlargement or reduction is to take place, a nut threadedly but non-rotationally engages the shaft for movement therealong and a projection from the carriage extends into the path of travel of the nut and is urged thereagainst by a spring. A wedge member is positioned between the projection and the nut. This wedge member rides along a guide bar to vary its position between the nut and the projection so that the distance between the nut and the projection varies as the nut travels along the shaft.

United States Patent Soe [54] ARRANGEMENT IN RULING MACHINE [72]Inventor: Hartvig Soe,Alvsjo, Sweden [73] Assignee: Misomex Aktiebolagof Ellen Keys Gata, Hagersten, Sweden [22] Filed: Jan. 23, 1970 [21]Appl. No.: 5,285

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data [151 3,686,763 Aug. 29, 1972Primary Examiner-Harry N. Haroian Attorney-Larson, Taylor and Hinds [57]ABSTRACT In a ruling machine of the type in which a recorder pencil iscarried by a carriage which is moved in accordance with a scanner, anarrangement for enlarging or reducing the distance travelled by therecorder pencil relevant to the scanner .to thereby counteractdistortions which would otherwise arise when the pattern made by therecorder pencil is stretched as when mounted on a cylinder of a printingpress. A threaded shaft extends in the direction in which enlargement orreduction is to take place, a nut threadedly but nonrotationally engagesthe shaft for movement therealong and a projection from the carriageextends into the path of travel of the nut and is urged thereagainst bya spring. A wedge member is positioned between the projection and thenut. This wedge member rides along a guide bar to vary its positionbetween the nut and the projection so that the distance between the nutand the projection varies as the nut travels along the shaft.

10 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures ARRANGEMENT IN RULING MACHINE In mycopending application Ser. No. 799,063, filed Feb. 13, 1969, now US.Pat. No. 3,562,914, issued Feb. 16, 1971, a ruling machine for forming areproduction of any kind of a rectangular master pattern is shown anddescribed, said ruling machine comprising a scanner for scanning everysingle line of a master pattern attached to a pattern table, a recorderconnected to said scanner for drawing lines onto a recording blankcorresponding to the scanned linesof the master pattern and anelectronic device co-ordinating said scanner and said recorder forreceiving and treating information of the location and the length of thescanned line coming from the scanner and in correspondence to saidtreated information forcing the recorder to execute its drawings,whereby the scanner and the recorder are each separately moveable in twodirections perpendicular to each other. For convenience, these twodirections are referred to hereinafter as the vertical and thehorizontal directions.

The various means of the ruling machine are thereby so formed and soconnected to each other that the recorder will positively reproduce thescanned line in the horizontal direction as well as in the verticaldirection.

The ruling machine has found a great employment in the formation offoils intended to be used as originals for being printed down onto aprinting plate having a light sensitive layer preferably for a rotaryprinting machine. In printing the original down onto the plane printingplate one will receive an exactly sized picture of the master originalon the printing plate. In bowing the printing plate around a cylinder ofthe printing press used therefor there will however be some sizeelongation along the periphery of the printing plate due to thethickness of said printing plate, i.e., along the surface thereof, ontowhich the printing picture was copied down. This size elongation ortraction will only take place in the direction of the bowing and not atall in the axial direction of the cylinder, and a size differencebetween the pattern original and the reproduction thereof formed in theprinting press will arise in the bowing direction of the printing platewhile on the contrary there will be an exact correspondence in the axialdirection of the printing cylinder. The expansion of the printing platein the bowing direction and the size difference connected thereto willbe further increased in locking-up the printing plate on the cylinder,which locking-up will usually take place by means of hooks engaging theprinting plate and clamping it in the bowing direction of the plate.

One has previously tried to eliminate the disad- I vantages of the sizedifferences arising due to the bowing and locking-up of the printingplate in the bowing direction by drawing the master pattern in onedirection, for instance the vertical direction in somewhat less scalethan the scale wanted to be reproduced after the printing, while it willthereabout be drawned in full scale in the horizontal direction. Thiswill of course be exacting, time consuming and expensive.

Also other methods and arrangements have been proposed for eliminatingthe above mentioned disadvantages, but the majority of such methods oradvantages hitherto known are expensive and exacting. Therefore thepresent invention is intended to remove which arrangement doesconsequently not pre-suppose any specially formed master pattern.

In my said earlier patent, it is described how the recorder pencil inruling in one direction or the other will automatically adjust itself inaccordance with a predetermined modulus, that is one-tenth inch in the 7vertical direction and one-eighth inch or one-half inch in thehorizontal direction. It has however been shown that there may incertain cases be a need of executing a ruling at one or more pointsbetween the fixed steps of the modulus, and the invention therefore alsorelates to a modified embodiment of a holder for the recorder pencil,which will admit a manual displacement of the recorder pencil in orderthat it will take the intended position between two lines of the fixedmodulus system.

Objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparentfrom the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of theinvention which is to be read together with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a ruling machine as shown in my saidearlier patent.

FIG. 2 shows a detail of FIG. 1 on an enlarged scale.

FIG. 3 is a schematic elevational view showing the improvement of thepresent invention.

' FIG. 4 is a plan view of another improvement of the presentinvention.-

In the drawings and in the following detailed description, whereapplicable, the reference numerals used in my said earlier patent areused herein to show the same or analagous members.

The ruling machine according to FIGS. 1 and 2 includes a scanner in thedrawings generally indicated by the reference number 8 and a writer,which is in the drawings generally indicated by the reference number 9.The scanner 8 and the writer 9 are freely movable independently of eachother, but for the coordination of said two devices there is anelectronic device, not shown herein but described in my said earlierpatent.

The scanner 8 comprises a parallel movable carriage 11, which isdisplaceable in one direction, which direction will, for the sake ofsimplicity, be called the vertical direction. On said carriage 11 aslider 12 is displaceably guided by a guide rod 13 or any similar means.The guide rod 13 is mounted perpendicularly to the moving direction ofthe carriage 11, so that the slider 12 will be displaceableperpendicularly to said moving direction. The slider 12 is in its outerend provided with a scanner pin 14, which may be a ball pencil. Thecarriage 11 together withthe slider 12 rides over a draft table, ontowhich the pattern draft 16 may be attached. For facilitating theattachment of the pattern draft 16 in such a way onto the draft table,that the lines thereof will run substantially parallel to the movingdirections of the scanner carriage l1 and the scanner slider 12respectively, one can first attach to the draft table a crossruledpattern 15 of a predetermined design and the pattern draft 16 isthereupon mounted above the cross-ruled pattern 15 such that thehorizontal and vertical lines thereof will run parallel to thecorresponding lines of the square pattern 15. For facilitating theattachment of the pattern draft onto the square pattern the draft tablemay be formed as a light table, so that the pattern draft 16 can fit tothe square pattern by a simple translucent of the square pattern and thedraft. Instead of using a square pattern the draft table may be providedwith two engravings perpendicular to each other and corresponding to themoving directions of the scanner carriage 11 and the scanner slider 12respectively, and in attaching the pattern draft onto the draft table itis only fit against said positioning lines.

For facilitating a reproduction of the vertical and horizontal lines ofthe pattern draft 16 there is a vertical locking means engaging thecarriage 11 and a horizontal locking means engaging the slider 12. Thevertical locking means includes a rack 17 running in the movingdirection of the carriage l1 and a cog or a second rack 18 attached tothe carriage 11 and adapted to be forced into engagement with said firstmentioned rack 17.

The horizontal locking means of the scanner includes like the verticallocking means thereof a rack 19, which is attached to the carriage 11,and which may effectively engage a cog or a rack 20, which is in turnattached to the slider 12.

The racks l7 and 19, which are substantially identical, are formed withteeth, as for instance 21, see FIG. 2, said teeth 21 being spaced butdisposed on a line. The racks 18 and are thereagainst formed withcontinuous saw-toothed shape, where each tooth such as 22 or 23 hassubstantially the same form and magnitude as the teeth 21 of the racks17 and 19.

Instead of forming the horizontal and vertical locking meansrespectively as two racks engaging each other, the fixed racks 17 and 19respectively can be formed with continuous saw-tooth shape, while thelocking means engaging said saw-tooth shaped rack may be formed as onesingle tooth.

Sometimes it is necessary or suitable to be able to reproduce a linewhich is disposed between two lines of the predetermined square pattern,and in a modification of the locking mechanism shown in FIG. 2 themovable rack 18 or 20 respectively is for this purpose formed as twoalternatively engageable racks, which are mutually displaced a distancecorresponding to half the distance between two adjacent teeth as forinstance 22, 23. This has been indicated by the broken lines of FIG. 2.Ifthereby the rack indicated by the continuous lines is normallyutilized the rack marked with the broken lines may in reproducing anintermediate. line be brought into engagement with the tooth 21 of FIG.2 instead of the rack marked with the continuous line, whereby thedrawing pencil 14 will be disposed exactly intermediate to adjacentlines of the square pattern.

The pitch between the teeth 21 of the racks 17 and 19 and the teeth 22,23 of the racks l8 and 20 respec-. tively may be adapted according tothe circumstances. The accepted standard of vertical and horizontal stepmovement is, for instance, in computers, fractions of an inch, so thepitch between the teeth 21 of the racks 17 and 19 has been chosen to beexactly one inch. The step displacement in one direction in a computeris one/tenth inch, and consequently the pitch between the teeth 22, 23of the rack 18 has been made exactly one/tenth inch. Thus the carriage11 can be displaced 10 steps of each one/tenth inch in the verticaldirection during engagement between the rack 18 and one and the sametooth 21 of the rack 17. The carriage has thereby moved 1 inch, and atthe next step it starts a new series of engagements with the nextadjacent tooth.

The pitch between the teeth of rack 19 are likewise exactly 1 inch, butin this case the standard of step displacements in computers areone/eighth or one/twelfth inch, and consequently the pitch between theteeth of the rack 20 has been chosen to be one/eighth or one/twelfthinch.

The writer 9 includes like the scanner 8 a carriage 24, which isparallelly movable in the vertical direction. The vertical displacementof the carriage is effected by means of a threaded shaft 25 via a wormgearing 26 and a clutch 27 operated by an electric motor 28. The shaft25 engages a nut mounted to the carriage 24, so that a rotation of theshaft 25 in one direction or the other will effect a verticaldisplacement up or down of the carriage 24.

A slider 29 is mounted on the carriage, 24 and is movable along thecarriage in a direction which is exactly perpendicular to the movingdirection of the carriage 24. The slider 29 is like the carriage 24operated by a threaded screw 30 engaging a nut mounted in the slider 29and via a worm gearing 31 and a clutch 32 being operated by an electricmotor 33.

In the free end of the slider 29 extending out of the carriage 24 it isprovided with a carrier 34 for a scriber pin, an ink pencil, a knife orthe like, said tool being intended to execute the actual reproductionwork.

Like the carriage 11 of the scanner, the carriage 24 of the writer ismovable over a table whereupon a blank 35 can be attached, onto whichthe line pattern is to be drawn.

In FIG. 3 there is shown the recorder carriage 24 with the meansconnected thereto for its vertical displacement seen from the side,whereby certain parts have been excluded for the sake of clarity. Therecorder carriage 24 is in the conventional manner mounted for adisplacement parallel to a table, onto which a recording blank isattached. For enabling the displacement of the carriage 24 there isprovided an electrical motor 28, which drives a threaded shaft 25 over aworm gear 26 and a sliding clutch 27. The shaft 25 is mounted parallellyto the recorder table, and it is at one end provided with means 36 asdescribed in my said earlier patent for stepwise fixed locking thereofin correspondence to a certain pre-determined modulus for the verticaldisplacement steps of the recorder carriage 24. The screw threaded shaft25 coacts with a nut including two nut disks 51, 52 somewhat axiallyspaced, which are biassed from each other by means of a number ofpressure springs 53 engaging between the two parts 51 and 52. Theintention of the nut being divided into two parts and the pressuresprings acting therebetween is to eliminate any actual play of the nut,so that a fully exact axial displacement may take place of the nut incorrespondence to the rotation of the screw shaft 25. For preventing thenut to rotate together with the screw shaft it is formed with aprojecting pin 54 extending through a slot 55 of the recorder carriage24. The slot 55 is of such a length that the pin 54 may be moved somedistance in the axial direction of the shaft 25 for a purpose which willbe explained below.

The recorder carriage 26 is provided with a downwardly extendingprojection 56 located aside of the screw shaft and extending a distancedown thereof. The edge of the projection 56 turned towards the nut 51,52 is wedgeformed together preferably towards its rear edge, and it isclose to the said wedge edge provided with two guide rollers 57 and 56one located in a vertical plane somewhat above the screw shaft 25 andthe other a corresponding distance underneath said shaft. The nut part52 is on its outside formed with a corresponding guide roller 59 locatedon axial line with the guide rollers 57 and 56 but in a vertical planeabout halfway them between. Between the guide ruler 59 and the rollers57 and 56 there is a wedge 66 the edge thereof contacting the guideroller 59 is vertical, while its edge contacting the guide rollers, 57and 56 forms the same angle with the vertical plane as the imaginaryline between the centers of the two guide rollers 57 and 56. Between thenut part 52 and the projection 56 but free from the wedge 66 a tensionspring 61 is extending the purpose of which is to resiliently pull theprojection 56 and the nut 51, 52 in a direction towards each other.Thereby a good contact is also obtained between the Wedge 66 and theguide rollers 57, 56 and 59.

On a vertical plane with the wedge 66 there is a guide 62 located underthe wedge preferably in the form of a bar or a cube and which extendsfrom the inner end of the screw shaft 25 to a point somewhat outside itsouter end. The guide bar 62 is pivotably mounted about a horizontal axisclose to the end thereof located at the inner end of the screw shaft,and it is at its other end formed with a nut 63 which is link connectedto the guide bar 62 over a horizontal pin. Through the nut 63 a screw 64extends which at its top is formed with a head axially fixed at a partof the ruling machine. A rotation of the screw 64 will consequentlycause a raising or a lowering of the outer end of the guide bar 62 and afollowing change of its horizontal position. The

wedge 66 is for this purpose formed with a lower.

traversing wheel bearing against the upper side of the guide bar 62thereby preventing the wedge 66 from falling out of the key-groove whichis being formed by the easily running guide rollers 57, 56 and 59. Thewedge 66 may while resting against the guide bar 62 be moved upwards or,due to the tension spring 61 forcing the guide rollers 57, 58 and 59against the wedge, downwards within said key-groove. A gradualdisplacement upwards of the wedge will cause a gradual increase of thedistance between the nut 51, 52 and the recorder carriage 24, and agradual displacement downwards along the guide bar 62 will cause agradual decrease of the distance between the nut and the recordercarriage. The slider nut 63 of the guide bar is preferably formed withan indicator 66 co-operating with a scale for indicating the horizontalposition of the guide bar 62. The scale may have any suitablegraduation, but the position has to be indicated where the guide bar 62is running fully parallel to the threaded shaft 25, where nodisplacement upwards or downwards of the wedge 66 will take place inmoving the recorder carriage and the means connected thereto along saidthreaded shaft. in this case the recording scale is 100 percent, i.e.neither a reducing or a enlarging will take place of the scanned line.In the drawings the upper half of the scale has been marked with aplussign and its lower half with a minus-sign what should indicate anenlarging or reducing resp. of the scanned line. Preferably thegraduation is made in percent of full recording scale.

In the drawings there is shown the principle of the function of thisarrangement, and as set up, it will provide a reduction of the scannedline in the vertical direction, i.e. upon a displacement of the recordercarriage 24 by means of the threaded shaft 25. At a rotation of theshaft 25 in such a direction that the nut 51, 52 will be moved outwardsthe wedge 60 will at the same time gradually be moved somewhat downwardswith respect to the recorder carriage, and the recorder carriage will inturn be pulled closer to the nut by the tension spring 61. At adisplacement of the nut 51, 52 a length corresponding to the distance AC in the drawings the recorder carriage 24 will only be moved thedistance A B due to the displacement downwards of the wedge 66 out ofthe key-groove. A displacement of the recorder carriage 24 a distance A-C would correspond to full recording scale, and such a displacementwill be obtained when the indicator 66 is adjusted so as to point at themarking 0 of the indicator scale. The displacement now executed by therecorder carriage is the distance B C shorter than the displacement ofthe nut and corresponds to the preadjusted reducing. When thereproduction of the master pattern is finished a printing plate willhave been made by means of a reproduction just finished, and in bowingand locking the printing form on the printing cylinder it is presumedthat the outer periphery of the printing form will stretch a distancecorresponding to the percentage reducing in the reproduction of themaster pattern, so that the printed copy will be a true size copy of themaster original in the horizontal direction as well as in the verticaldirection.

in FllG. 4 there is schematically showed a modified embodiment of arecorder slider 29 for a ruling machine according to my said earlierpatent having a holder 36 for a recording pencil 48 or the like. Theholder 34 is in the direction parallel to the axial direction of thescrew shaft 30 disp laceably mounted in a guide, and it is in adirection at right angle thereto displaceably mounted in a second guide.The holder is by means of two leaf springs 67 and 68 resiliently mountedin its guides, and the displacement may be caused by means of two setscrews 69 and 70., which are threaded into some part of the recorderslider 29 and are resting against the holder 34 at the side thereofbeing opposite the side provided with the leaf springs. The screws 69and 76 are preferably graded in units of the modulus for thepre-determined step displacement and there is preferably an indicationon the recorder slider corresponding to the screw scale. In a preferredembodiment of the invention the screws 69 and 70 have been formed with apitch of thread corresponding to a step displacement of half a modulus,and the screw scale is formed with ten indicator points. A rotation ofthe screw one point thus corresponds to a step displacement ofone/twentieth modulus.

it is obvious to the man skilled in the art that the described andshowed arrangements are only to be considered as explanatory examples,and that all kinds of modification may occur within the scope of thisinvention.

What i claim is:

1. A ruling machine comprising: a recorder carriage movable along atleast one direction and supporting arecording means movable therewith torecord a line in said direction; a control means for either enlarging orreducing the distance of travel of the carriage in said directionrelative to a reference distance, said control means comprising, athreaded shaft extending in said direction, a nut threadedly engagingthe threaded shaft and means for preventing rotation of the nut aboutits axis such that the nut moves along the shaft when the shaft isturned, a projection fixedly connected to the carriage and extendingacross the path of the threaded nut as the latter moves along saidthreaded shaft, a spring urging the nut and projection towards eachother, a wedge member located between said nut and said projection andarranged such that when moved across the space between the projectionand the nut, it enlarges or reduces the distance between them, and aguide means for varying the position of the wedge across the spacebetween the projection and the nut and hence also varying the distancebetween the projection and the nut as the nut moves along the threadedshaft, whereby when the nut is moved along the shaft a distancecorresponding to the reference distance, the recorder carriage will movewith the nut but for a distance greater or less than the said referencedistance.

2. A ruling machine according to claim 1, wherein said guide meanscomprises a bar extending in generally the same direction as thethreaded shaft, said wedge positioned against and movable along saidbar.

3. A ruling machine according to claim 2, including means for varyingthe angular orientation of the guide bar relative to the threaded shaftand thereby varying the amount of increase or decrease of travel betweenthe nut and the carriage as the nut moves along the threaded shaft.

4. A ruling machine according to claim 3, said wedge member having itsnarrow end facing upwardly and the 8 bottom thereof resting on saidguide bar, said varying means comprising a pivot connection at one endof the guide bar and a nut at the other end thereof threadedly engaginga screw for raising and lowering said other end of the guide bar to turnit about said pivot connection.

5. A ruling machine according to claim 4 wherein the means forpreventing the nut from rotating comprises a pin fixed to the nut andextending upwardly therefrom and engaged in a slot in the carriage whichslot is elongated in the said direction of travel.

6. A ruling machine according to claim 4, wherein the wedge member iskept in position between the said projection and the said nut by meansof at least three cooperating guide rollers, two of which rollers aremounted in the said projection of the carriage, and the other of whichis mounted in the said nut.

7. A ruling machine according to claim 6, including a wheel mounted inthe bottom of the wedge member and engaging the guide bar.

8. A ruling machine according to claim 1, wherein the recording means isa recording pencil, and including means for manually displacing thispencil either in said direction of travel or perpendicular thereto.

9. A ruling machine according to claim 8, wherein said recording pencilis mounted in a holder which is displaceable manually in said twodirections b means of set screws arranged perpendlcular to eac other,

each set screw urging the said holder in one of said perpendiculardirections against the action of biasing means.

10. A ruling machine according to claim 9, wherein said machine includesa main indexing means having a certain pitch; and wherein the saidscrews are formed with threads of a pitch such that one full rotation ofeach set screw corresponds to one whole unit of the said certain pitch,and including markings on the thread screw.

1. A ruling machine comprising: a recorder carriage movable along atleast one direction and supporting a recording means movable therewithto record a line in said direction; a control means for either enlargingor reducing the distance of travel of the carriage in said directionrelative to a reference distance, said control means comprising, athreaded shaft extending in said direction, a nut threadedly engagingthe threaded shaft and means for preventing rotation of the nut aboutits axis such that the nut moves along the shaft when the shaft isturned, a projection fixedly connected to the carriage and extendingacross the path of the threaded nut as the latter moves along saidthreaded shaft, a spring urging the nut and projection towards eachother, a wedge member located between said nut and said projection andarranged such that when moved across the space between the projectionand the nut, it enlarges or reduces the distance between them, and aguide means for varying the position of the wedge across the spacebetween the projection and the nut and hence also varying the distancebetween the projection and the nut as the nut moves along the threadedshaft, whereby when the nut is moved along the shaft a distancecorresponding to the reference distance, the recorder carriage will movewith the nut but for a distance greater or less than the said referencedistance.
 2. A ruling machine according to claim 1, wherein said guidemeans comprises a bar extending in generally the same direction as thethreaded shaft, said wedge positioned against and movable along saidbar.
 3. A ruling machine according to claim 2, including means forvarying the angular orientation of the guide bar relative to thethreaded shaft and thereby varying the amount of increase or decrease oftravel between the nut and the carriage as the nut moves along thethreaded shaft.
 4. A ruling machine according to claim 3, said wedgemember having its narrow end facing upwardly and the bottom thereofresting on said guide bar, said varying means comprIsing a pivotconnection at one end of the guide bar and a nut at the other endthereof threadedly engaging a screw for raising and lowering said otherend of the guide bar to turn it about said pivot connection.
 5. A rulingmachine according to claim 4 wherein the means for preventing the nutfrom rotating comprises a pin fixed to the nut and extending upwardlytherefrom and engaged in a slot in the carriage which slot is elongatedin the said direction of travel.
 6. A ruling machine according to claim4, wherein the wedge member is kept in position between the saidprojection and the said nut by means of at least three cooperating guiderollers, two of which rollers are mounted in the said projection of thecarriage, and the other of which is mounted in the said nut.
 7. A rulingmachine according to claim 6, including a wheel mounted in the bottom ofthe wedge member and engaging the guide bar.
 8. A ruling machineaccording to claim 1, wherein the recording means is a recording pencil,and including means for manually displacing this pencil either in saiddirection of travel or perpendicular thereto.
 9. A ruling machineaccording to claim 8, wherein said recording pencil is mounted in aholder which is displaceable manually in said two directions by means ofset screws arranged perpendicular to each other, each set screw urgingthe said holder in one of said perpendicular directions against theaction of biasing means.
 10. A ruling machine according to claim 9,wherein said machine includes a main indexing means having a certainpitch, and wherein the said screws are formed with threads of a pitchsuch that one full rotation of each set screw corresponds to one wholeunit of the said certain pitch, and including markings on the threadscrew.